We propose a test of bias based upon patterns of judicial errors. We model the trial court as minimizing a weighted sum … of type I and II errors. We define racial bias a situation where the weight depends on defendant/victim race. If the …

We propose a test of bias based upon patterns of judicial errors. We model the trial court as minimizing a weighted sum … of type I and II errors. We define racial bias a situation where the weight depends on defendant/victim race. If the …

This paper proposes a test of racial bias in capital sentencing based upon patterns of judicial errors in lower courts … that of letting a guilty defendant free. We define racial bias as a situation where the relative weight on the two types of … between 1973 and 1995. We find robust evidence of bias against minority defendants who killed white victims: in Direct Appeal …

racial bias in official arrest records for a broad swath of offenses.Method: I use official arrest and self-reported crime … theoretical definition of bias in criminal records in terms of measurement error. It then seeks to provide empirical estimates of … data from the Pathways to Desistance study to estimate Black-to-white and Hispanic-to-white crime ratios conditional on …

Whether punishment promotes or deters future criminal activity by the convicted offender is a key public policy concern …. Longer prison sentences further isolate offenders from the legitimate labor force and may promote the formation of criminal … networks in prison. On the other hand, greater initial punishment may have a deterrence effect on the individual being punished …

towards defendants of their own race during the guilt-innocence decision. In the sentencing phase, we find in-group bias in … identifies such opposing effects of bias within the same decision sequence. Regarding overall racial bias, we document that … minorities are more likely to get convicted, and that they are given stiffer punishment, conditional on conviction. We find only …